Rev. Henry Ward Beecher
Date: April 13, 1862
America was in the middle of a Civil War and the nation leaned on Beecher to guide their moral senses. Abraham Lincoln was grateful to have the support of Beecher, his famous family, and his millions of devout followers. Lincoln referred to the reverend's older sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, as "...the little lady who started this big war" due to the wild success of her book, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Lincoln's nickname for Henry, her younger brother, was simply, "the most influential man in America."
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher was one of America's first mega preacher. He came to fame through his influence over the heart and soul of America in an effort to support and sustain her bloody march towards the full purge of slavery. The result was the dawning of a new chapter of freedom.
Americans needed a constant reminder of the value that would come from the expulsion of slavery. Beecher was helping America realize her own destiny to be a free nation. The reverend was printed in every major newspaper, with every news cycle, and with a booming, ubiquitous voice of reason.
Below we are honored to present to you a sermon that helped crystalize the importance and meaning of our American democracy in a time of doubt and uncertainty. It was addressed to our fellow Americans that had to bear witness to that awful time of war.
- Editor, Keith Wright
American Democracy Defined
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| Rev. Henry Ward Beecher in London Defending the Cause of the Union, 1863 |
Our flag has been the honored symbol of our people in their memorable struggle for independence. It has seen the British arms laid down before it. It has been honored in every land. Without disgrace, our men-of-war had brought it to every part of the world. Nor was there a port upon the globe where men chose or dared to insult that national emblem.
As we look back on the war's beginning, we see that within one year a gigantic army has been raised and drilled; all its equipment created; all the material of war produced and collected together. The cannons that now reverberate across the continent, twelve months ago were sleeping ore in the mountains. The clothing of thousands was fleece upon the backs of sheep.
As we look back, we can scarcely believe our own senses, that so much has been done. Although, at every single hour of it, it seemed as if little was being done. For all the speed and all the power of this great government, it was still not as fast and eager as our thoughts and desires were.
The history of this year is the history of the common people of America. It is memorable on account of the light that it throws upon them. We are fond of talking about American ideas. There are such things as American ideas, distinctive, peculiar, national. Not that they were first discovered here, or that they are only entertained here; but because more than anywhere else they lie at the root of the institutions, and are working out the laws and the policies of these people.
The root idea is this: that man is the most sacred trust of God to the world; that his value is derived from his moral relations, from his divinity. Examined by his relations to God and the eternal world, every man is ‘so valuable that you cannot make distinction between one and another.
If you measure a man by the skill that he can exhibit, and the fruit of it, there is great distinction between one and another. Men are not each worth the same thing to society. All men cannot think with a like value, nor work with a like product. And if you measure man as a producing creature — that is, in his secular relations, men are not alike valuable.
But when you measure men on their spiritual side, and in their affectional relations to God and the eternal world, the lowest man is so immeasurable in value that you cannot make any practical difference between one man and another. Although, doubtless, some are vastly above others, the lowest and least goes beyond your power of conceiving, and your power of measuring.
This is the root idea, which even if you do not recognize it, it still continues to operate. It is the fundamental principle of our American scheme, that man is above nature. By virtue of his original endowment and affiliation to the Eternal Father, man is superior to every other created thing.
There is nothing to be compared with man. All governments are from him and for him. Not over him and upon him. All institutions are not his masters, but his servants. All days, all ordinances, all usages, come to minister to the chief and the king, God's son, man, of whom only God is master. Therefore he is to be thoroughly enlarged, thoroughly empowered by development, and then thoroughly trusted.
This is the American idea and we stand in contrast with the world in holding and teaching it. The idea that once men have been thoroughly educated, are to be absolutely trusted.
As we look back on the war's beginning, we see that within one year a gigantic army has been raised and drilled; all its equipment created; all the material of war produced and collected together. The cannons that now reverberate across the continent, twelve months ago were sleeping ore in the mountains. The clothing of thousands was fleece upon the backs of sheep.
As we look back, we can scarcely believe our own senses, that so much has been done. Although, at every single hour of it, it seemed as if little was being done. For all the speed and all the power of this great government, it was still not as fast and eager as our thoughts and desires were.
The history of this year is the history of the common people of America. It is memorable on account of the light that it throws upon them. We are fond of talking about American ideas. There are such things as American ideas, distinctive, peculiar, national. Not that they were first discovered here, or that they are only entertained here; but because more than anywhere else they lie at the root of the institutions, and are working out the laws and the policies of these people.
The root idea is this: that man is the most sacred trust of God to the world; that his value is derived from his moral relations, from his divinity. Examined by his relations to God and the eternal world, every man is ‘so valuable that you cannot make distinction between one and another.
If you measure a man by the skill that he can exhibit, and the fruit of it, there is great distinction between one and another. Men are not each worth the same thing to society. All men cannot think with a like value, nor work with a like product. And if you measure man as a producing creature — that is, in his secular relations, men are not alike valuable.
But when you measure men on their spiritual side, and in their affectional relations to God and the eternal world, the lowest man is so immeasurable in value that you cannot make any practical difference between one man and another. Although, doubtless, some are vastly above others, the lowest and least goes beyond your power of conceiving, and your power of measuring.
This is the root idea, which even if you do not recognize it, it still continues to operate. It is the fundamental principle of our American scheme, that man is above nature. By virtue of his original endowment and affiliation to the Eternal Father, man is superior to every other created thing.
There is nothing to be compared with man. All governments are from him and for him. Not over him and upon him. All institutions are not his masters, but his servants. All days, all ordinances, all usages, come to minister to the chief and the king, God's son, man, of whom only God is master. Therefore he is to be thoroughly enlarged, thoroughly empowered by development, and then thoroughly trusted.
This is the American idea and we stand in contrast with the world in holding and teaching it. The idea that once men have been thoroughly educated, are to be absolutely trusted.
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| Rev. Beecher Gives a Celebratory Speech at Fort Sumpter after its Recapture by the Union |
America has her governing class, too; and that governing class is the whole people. It is a slower work, because it is so much larger. It is never carried so high, because there is so much more of it. It is easy to lift up a crowned class. It is not easy to lift up society from the very foundation. That work takes centuries.
And therefore, though we do not have an education as deep nor as high as it is in some other places, we have it broader than it is anywhere else in the world. We have learned that for ordinary affairs intelligence among the common people is better than treasures of knowledge among particular classes of the people. School-books do more for this country than encyclopedias.
The American conception of a common people can be thought of as our order of nobility. We don't define the common people by separating the educated men and men of genius from everyone else. The whole community, top and bottom and intermediate, the strong and the weak, the rich and the poor, the leaders and the followers, constitute with us the commonwealth. From this laws spring from the people, administration conforms to their wishes, and they are made the final judges of every interest of the State.
In the end, there is not one single American element of civilization that is not made to depend upon public opinion. Art, law, administration, policy, reformations of morals, religious teaching, all derive the most potent influence from the common people in our form of society. Although the common people are educated in preconceived notions of religion, the great intuitions and instincts of the heart of man rise up afterwards, and in their turn influence back. So there is action and reaction.
It is this very thing that has led educated Europeans to doubt the stability of our nation. Due to their strange ignorance, our glory has seemed to them our shame, and our strength has seemed to them our weakness, and our invincibility has seemed to them our disaster and defeat. This impression of Europeans has been expressed in England in language that has surprised us, and that one day will surprise them.
But it is impossible that nations that are educated to sympathize with strong governments and with the side of those that govern them. Though they should sympathize with the governed. In this country the sympathy goes with the governed, and not with the governing. In other countries it goes with the governing, and not with the governed. And abroad they are measured by a false rule, and by a home-bred and one-sided sympathy.
But whether tested by external pressure or by the most wondrous internal evils like this civil war, an educated democratic people are the strongest government that can be made on the face of the earth. In no other form of society is it so safe to set discussion at large. Nowhere else is there such safety in the midst of apparent firestorm. Nowhere else is there such an entire rule, when there seems to be such entire anarchy. A foreigner would think, pending a presidential election, that the end of the world had come. The people roar and dash like an ocean.
“No government,” he would say, “was ever strong enough to hold such wild and tumultuous enthusiasm, and zeal, and rage." True. There is not a government strong enough to hold them. Nothing but self-government that will do it. Educate men to take care of themselves, individually and in masses, and then let the winds blow; then let the storms fall; then let excitement burn, and men will learn to move freely among each other like drops of water in the ocean.
Who is Rev. Henry Ward Beecher?
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| Rev. Henry Ward Beecher - Age, Mid 30's |
Henry Ward Beecher is a man who preached freedom for the slave, and whose words have electrified a continent and sent a thrill to the heart of the whole English-speaking race. A man who was so highly distinguished for originality of thought, who has been called the Shakespeare of the century, the advocate of universal liberty, the friend of the oppressed everywhere, and who converted the English public to a right view of the civil struggle in America, could only be fully and fairly appreciated when the grave had closed over hime, and the mighty voice with which he spoke had been hushed forever.
(Preface by Thomas W. Knox from “Life and Work of Henry Ward Beecher”)
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